Chapter 20
After Halloween, time slipped into November, and the weather at Hogwarts turned sharply cold.
For most Hogwarts students, the most important thing right now was the arrival of the Quidditch season. But for Aisen, the snowy season held far more fascination.
Every morning, the ground was covered in a thick layer of frost, and the surrounding lawns lay blanketed under heavy snow.
Ever since Professor McGonagall had recommended him as Gryffindor's Seeker, Harry had already been training for several weeks. Saturday was the day of Harry's first official match—Gryffindor versus Slytherin.
If Gryffindor won, their House would climb to second place in the House Cup standings. But Aisen didn't care about any of that. Right now, he was busy learning the Apparition spell from Professor Flitwick.
"Oh, Professor Aisen, Apparition is a very difficult spell, but I'm sure you already know the proper technique for casting it, don't you!" After Aisen explained why he had come, Professor Flitwick deliberately led him outside the school grounds. There was no helping it—Hogwarts was protected by powerful anti-Apparition charms.
"Yes—Apparition follows the three D's: Destination, Determination, Deliberation. Even so, it's extremely dangerous and should only be learned with someone watching!" Aisen had already been studying Apparition for quite some time.
He then began practicing in front of Professor Flitwick. Because Aisen understood the spell so deeply and had grasped its casting technique, it didn't take long before he completely mastered Apparition.
Indeed, at first, because he wasn't used to it, Aisen's attempts caused parts of his fingers to splinch. Fortunately, Professor Flitwick was right there and could fix it immediately.
But after a few more tries, Aisen could perform Apparition smoothly and reliably.
"Excellent, Professor Aisen—you've mastered the spell perfectly." Seeing that Aisen had learned such a notoriously difficult spell in only half an hour, Professor Flitwick couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
"No, I still feel very far from perfect. But thank you, Professor Flitwick!" Aisen shook his head. Although he had once joked in class with the young witches and wizards about Apparating to the Moon, now that he had actually learned the spell, he genuinely wanted to make a lunar journey one of his future goals.
So in his mind, he still had a very long way to go. Nevertheless, he sincerely thanked Professor Flitwick.
What still bothered Aisen, though, was that even after mastering Apparition, he still couldn't Apparate inside Hogwarts itself. When he thought about how house-elves possessed the innate talent to bypass Hogwarts' magical restrictions, he felt intensely envious.
Suddenly, a question occurred to him: what if a wizard first cast a Disillusionment Charm and then Apparated? Wouldn't that make the movement far more undetectable?
He voiced the question directly.
"Hmm, that's an excellent question. However, during Apparition, the violent spatial compression and distortion might make it impossible to maintain a Disillusionment Charm," Professor Flitwick replied, clearly surprised by the idea but offering his best guess.
"That said, if one were to deeply study both spells, truly grasp their essence, then combining them—or even inventing an entirely new spell—would certainly be possible."
In fact, such a possibility did exist. In the original story, although Dumbledore never demonstrated it, no one could say for certain that he was incapable of doing so.
Still, after thinking about his own golden-finger advantage, Aisen decided there was no need to obsess over it too much. For now, his early-stage small goals could be considered complete.
He had mastered Expelliarmus, Transfiguration, and Apparition. Expelliarmus for attack and Apparition for escape and travel aside, the Transfiguration skill he had studied so deeply was already more than enough for both offense and defense against enemies.
With these abilities under his belt, Aisen felt that as long as he continued to deepen his study and practice, that would be sufficient. Some might argue that Expelliarmus lacked killing power—that ordinary injuries could easily be healed with healing charms—and that he should instead learn extremely powerful Dark magic, such as the Killing Curse.
But for Aisen, that wasn't an issue at all. As time passed, the magic within his body would grow steadily stronger, and his overall physical condition would slowly improve along with it.
In that case, his Expelliarmus could become the same kind of all-purpose attack spell that Harry wielded in the original books. After disarming an opponent, Aisen could use Transfiguration to bind them, then finish them off with a Blasting Curse—or simply Transfigure a knife and kill them directly.
Aisen reasoned that a wizard who had been completely immobilized would have no way to heal themselves. Therefore, there was no need to specially learn Dark magic.
The reason Aisen resisted learning Dark magic was that, in this world, Dark magic truly was sinister. Originally, his understanding of it had been quite shallow; he only knew it was profoundly evil and required intense malice and extreme negative emotions as fuel.
But after doing a bit of deeper reading in the library recently, Aisen discovered that prolonged, in-depth study of Dark magic would inevitably erode and damage the soul.
Logically speaking, if extreme negative emotions were constantly being nurtured within a person, it was only natural that their soul would be corroded. But soul damage was clearly something Aisen wanted to avoid at all costs. Therefore, he was strongly opposed to learning Dark magic.
As for why Professor Snape could immerse himself so deeply in Dark magic research without being turned into an evil person by its corruption, Aisen believed it had to do with the overwhelming love Snape still carried for Lily Evans in his heart.
In other words, powerful positive emotions could counteract the soul-corroding effects of Dark magic.
As for the argument that Dark magic was overwhelmingly powerful and lethal—Aisen simply didn't think that mattered. Wizards were still human; if you killed them, they died. In Aisen's view, ordinary spells were perfectly capable of killing, so there was no need to resort to Dark magic for that purpose.
Moreover, what truly made Dark magic "Dark" wasn't merely its capacity to kill—it was its profound evil. The Killing Curse, for example, was considered unforgivable precisely because it was so wicked that no counter-curse existed.
Although Aisen considered himself full of sunshine and optimism, he still had no desire to personally test whether positive emotions could truly protect his soul from Dark magic corruption. After all, with his golden finger, becoming powerful was already easy enough.
After bidding farewell to Professor Flitwick, Aisen returned to the staff quarters.
In the days that followed, aside from using various spells in daily life, Aisen made time to go outside the school grounds to practice combinations of Transfiguration, Expelliarmus, and Apparition. In his spare moments, he also devoted some energy to studying Occlumency and the Patronus Charm.
There was no helping it: although he wasn't worried that Dumbledore would use Legilimency on him, he absolutely had to guard against Voldemort. And the Patronus Charm was essential for defending against Dementors.
In this world, Dementors were practically a glitch. Every spell—even the Unforgivable Curses—had no effect on them whatsoever. They were immune to everything except the Patronus Charm. So Aisen could only carve out time to learn these two branches of magic.
Beyond that, most of his time was spent researching magical artifacts and alchemy.
While Aisen was immersed in his own world, the Quidditch match was about to begin.
…
Because Harry was busy preparing for the Quidditch match, after Halloween Hermione not only helped him finish his homework but also lent him a copy of *Quidditch Through the Ages*.
Unfortunately, perhaps because of how the trio had behaved at the Halloween feast, Professor Snape grew even more hostile toward them. He confiscated Harry's copy of *Quidditch Through the Ages* on some pretext.
On Friday evening, Harry decided to go ask Snape to return the book. But instead he unexpectedly caught sight of Professor Snape's leg bleeding heavily.
As a result, Harry not only failed to retrieve his book but was also shouted at by Snape. Terrified of losing House points, Harry hurried back to the Gryffindor common room.
At that moment, he remembered the three-headed dog standing guard over the trapdoor, the troll that had appeared on Halloween, and Snape's secret nighttime trips to the third floor.
Recalling the sight of Snape's injured leg, Harry became convinced he had uncovered the truth. He told Ron and Hermione all of his suspicions.
"No—I know he's awful, but he definitely wouldn't steal something Professor Dumbledore was hiding," Hermione objected, clearly disagreeing with Harry's conclusion.
But Ron thought Hermione was being too naive in believing all the professors were good people. He sided with Harry. The only question was exactly what Snape was trying to steal.
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